Nearly 30 per cent more people flew from Regina to U.S. in 2025: Airport CEO

Despite the volatile U.S.-Canadian trade relationship, plenty of people are still flying to the States from Saskatchewan, according to the Regina Airport Authority’s CEO.

“We ended the year up 29.5 per cent, and this means an increase of over 15,000 to 16,000 passengers, year over year, to the U.S.,” James Bogusz said in an interview on the Greg Morgan Morning Show Wednesday.

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Bogusz said the airport served more than 1.16 million passengers in 2025, an increase of 3.1 per cent over 2024. He said 2025 saw a fairly slow start to the year, but things really ramped up heading into the summer and that trend has continued.

Listen to the full interview with James Bogusz:

“The winter has been great,” he said.

Bogusz said destination visitors were part of the reason the numbers were up this year and partly why there have been general increases in domestic flights.

WestJet rescinding decision to shorten seats

Bogusz said he thinks WestJet’s recent decision to walk back its plans to install a tighter seating layout on some of its aircraft will be welcomed by passengers, though he said rescinding the decision is going to be a “very large job” for the Canadian airline.

“It took quite a while for these configurations to occur. It’s going to impact over 20 of their 737, aircraft. I expect there’ll be some impacts in a city like YQR and also some other mid-sized airports when they pull those off the fleet to change those, but I think it’s welcome news,” said Bogusz.

He noted that online discussions around the controversial decision saw many taller passengers posting photos of their lack of legroom.

“I think WestJet obviously made a great choice listening to the customer,” he added.

Lost luggage

Bogusz, asked about an incident on a Jan. 3 flight from Regina to Mexico which saw a number of bags lost along the way, noted that airlines handle their own bags and the Regina airport doesn’t have baggage handlers.

During the decades he’s worked in airports, he said it was “very rare” to have a large number of bags lost all at once.

“Hopefully that’s a very uncommon occurrence, because that would be very frustrating when the airline doesn’t get your bags to you, especially on vacation,” he said.

Minneapolis and Denver flights

Bogusz said he hasn’t seen enough data to know whether the protests and political tension following a pair of shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis have affected flights, but noted that flights to Denver are still holding their own.

“We’re actually going to be having a chat with the airline in the new year just to talk about performance,” he added.

He hinted there could be more news in the coming year about flights to Denver.

“I don’t want to get too ahead of it, Greg, but I’m hoping that we can start talking about a second daily Denver service meeting, in the next 12 to 18 months, if things continue to perform well,” Bogusz told Morgan.

“That’s been a very important market for us and especially that connectivity out of that big hub.”

Direct flight between Regina and Saskatoon

Bogusz said the airport has also had conversations with carriers in the province that could potentially offer service between Saskatchewan’s two largest cities.

He pointed to a recent chamber of commerce survey that indicated some demand.

“No airline, so far, has made a commitment to pick that up, and this would be (a) regional carrier, not a major carrier like WestJet,” he said.